Denver Nuggets Reply To Questions With a Blowout Win vs. LA Lakers

Carmelo Anthony’s 25 led the Nuggets in scoring, and Denver dominated the loathed LA Lakers 105-79 in the Mile High city Friday night.

But to read just that would be to miss the importance of the victory, as Denver answered many questions that I asked prior to the game. As it turns out, all the answers were intertwined and everything fell into place for the Nuggets Friday.

The first question I asked was, "Is Carmelo Anthony going for MVP good for the Nuggets?"

Well, Melo answered that tonight, as he was spectacular in the scoring department, with 25 points on 11-20 scoring, but he also snagged four rebounds and dished two assists. What he didn't do is take too many shots or hold onto the ball too long.

When he takes quality shots, Carmelo usually makes them, and when he's covered the most productive thing to do is pass to teammates. Plus when everyone is getting involved, he's more likely to receive passes in transition, which happened multiple times tonight against LA.

And when Melo is unselfish, the whole team is, answering my question about chemistry.

Besides Anthony, the Nuggets had four players score in double digits, two starters, and one (J.R. Smith) will be one soon.

And while Smith's 20 were impressive, he could average around that once he starts on a regular basis. The big story was the big scoring by Denver's bigs tonight against the World Champion Lakers.

Nene scored 13, grabbed six boards and even handed out four assists. He could score relatively easily against Andrew Bynum in the post, and was too quick for Bynum when he faced up.

Kenyon Martin was vintage K-Mart, and even though he only scored 10, he was very aggressive on the boards with nine and passed well too with five assists of his own. And he set a physical presence by bullying Lamar Odom into a tie-up and a jump ball. The jump that Martin tipped was grabbed by a racing Chauncey Billups, who dropped the ball to Melo for an easy lay up. The play was a turning point in the contest, the end of a 10-0 run by Denver.

Which finishes with my other two questions that centered around the front courts of either team.

Ron Artest, Bynum and Odom actually outscored their usual 42.6 points per game with a combined 44 point effort, but the three were dominated physically. Artest drew his fourth and fifth fouls quickly in the third quarter, and had to sit the rest of the game. And Chris Andersen, K-Mart, and Nene out-rebounded the Lakers big three 26-25, a small margin, but the effort on the boards was certainly up in a huge way last night.

So, even though the Nuggets' three best front court players were outscored, they outplayed their competition tonight, as all three were on top of their game.

But, let us not forget that this is a game early in the season, the Lakers are without their second best player in Pau Gasol and LA played the second game of a road back-to-back tonight which showed.

Still, the Nuggets and their fans should revel in the huge victory, one in which all the Lakers (Kobe) fans at the Pepsi Center left early because their favorite player couldn't score after half. Denver beat LA for the first time this year—the first rematch since last year's Western Conference Finals and the win should prove to give confidence to the team as they move forward in the coming weeks.